True darkness...
You just reminded me of the time I was sent to photograph the Caverns
of Sonora in West Texas. Painting with light. The guy on whose
property it was, wanted to start a tourist attraction, and needed
photos for the brochure. It was an incredibly beautiful cavern.
Anyway, he had drilled a hole down to a spot in the cavern, and went
back up to the surface to drop a long electrical cable down to me,
leaving me there with my little carbide miner's lamp on my hat. Did
you know those things are loaded with a spring that makes them fly
all over the place if you are too fumblefingered ? I didn't either. I
did know that there were countless deep chasms all over the damned
place, though, so when my light went out and I messed up trying to
recharge it, and the pieces flew everywhere, I just sat in one place
for two hours afraid to move. I heard the electrical cable dropping
down the hole but I sat exactly where I was until the guy came back
with a lamp.
You think it is dark in a photo darkroom? If that is what you think
of as dark, you have absolutely no concept of what true darkness is
600 feet under solid rock with deep holes all over the place that
you are certain to fall into if you move an inch.